Method and apparatus for feeding bars into straightener



Q- SHEN Oct. 18, 1966 METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR FEEDING BARS INTO STRAIGHTENER 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed May 19, 1965 IN v5 ran. OU/N SHE/V M A farney Q. SHEN 3,279,585

' METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR FEEDING BARS INTO S'I'RAIGHTENER Oct. 18, 1966 Filed May 19, 1965 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR GUI/V SHE/V YM XMJ Attorney Oct. 18, 1966 Q. SHEN 3,279,585

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR FEEDING BARS INTO STRAIGHTENER Filed May 19, 1965 4 Sheets-Sheet 5 INVEN TOR. OU/N SHE/V A f forney Q. SHEN Oct. 18, 1966 METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR FEEDING BARS INTO STRAIGHTENER Filed May 19, 1965 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 /IVVE/VTOR. OUl/V SHE/V 8 Ar tor/rev United States Patent M 3 279,585 METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR FEEDING BARS INTO STRAIGHTENER Quin Shen, Forest Hills Borough, Pa., assignor to United States Steel Corporation, a corporation of Delaware Filed May 19, 1965, Ser. No. 457,085 10 Claims. (Cl. 198-127) This invention relates to a method and apparatus for feeding deformed bars into straightening machines. More particularly, the invention involves the feeding of bars which have ends that are so badly kinked or bent that they will not enter the straightening machines simply by feeding them longitudinally along the pass line through the straightening rolls.

The handling of bars with bent or kinked ends has long been a problem. The ends of the bars become deformed when they are cut on the hot saw, or when they are heattreated. If the deformity prevents the. bar from passing through the straightening rolls along the prescribed pass line, the past practice has been either to saw off the deformed ends or to straighten the bars in a hydraulic straightening press. However, these operations consume valuable production time, particularly since they require that the bars be removed from the feeding table.

With my invention, the bars which will not enter the straightening rolls need not be removed from the feeding table. Instead, they are raised above the pass line through the straightening rolls and their front ends are fed over middle portions of the rolls and then drop fed into the rolls.

An object of my invention is to proivde a new and improved, fast method for feeding bars with deformed ends into straightening machines, when a prior atttempt to feed the bars longitudinally along the pass line of the straightening machine has proven unsuccessful.

Another object of my invention is to provide apparatus for feeding into straightening machines bars having ends that are so badly deformed that they cannot 'be fed between the straightening rolls by a simple longitudinal movement along the pass line through the rolls.

The attainment of these and other objects will appear more readily from the following description of my invention and the attached drawings in which:

FIGURE 1 is a top plan view of the front portion of apparatus for feeding deformed bars into a straightening machine:

, FIGURE 2 is a side sectional View of the apparatus of FIGURE '1, taken on lines IIII of FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 3 is a partial side view of the apparatus of FIGURE 1, showing two table rollers and the gearmotors for driving them;

FIGURE 4 is a sectional view of the apparatus of FIG- URES 1 and 2, taken on lines IV-IV of FIGURE 2;

FIGURE 5 is a sectional view showing a cradle member of the apparatus of FIGURES 1 and 2, taken on lines VV of FIGURE 2;

FIGURE 6 is a side view of the rear portion of the apparatus of FIGURE 1; and

FIGURE 7 is a side sectional view of the apparatus of FIGURE 1, taken on lines IIII of FIGURE 1 and showing parts of the apparatus in different positons from those shown in FIGURE 2.

In FIGURE 1, a deformed bar B is supported on a table 2 and is ready to be fed into straightening machine rolls 3, located in front of the bar B and to the left of the table 2. The rolls 3 have narrow middle portions 4 which grab the bar B as it is passed through the rolls.

The table 2 is composed of two long horizontal beams 5, rear table rollers 6 land a front table roller 8. The rollers 6 are fixed to axles 10, and these axles are journaled Patented Oct. 18, 1966 in bearing supports 12. The supports 12 are fixed to arms 14, which have slots 15 for passage of the axles 10. As shown in FIGURE 2, the arms 14 are fixed to shafts 16, which are equipped with sleeves 17 and are rotatably supported in bearing supports 18. The supports 18 are in turn bolted to short beams 19 that are welded to the tops of the long beams 5.

Gearmotors 20 (FIGURE 1) are connected to the roller axles 10, and these gearmotors drive the rollers 6 to feed the bar B toward the straightening rolls 3. The manner in which the gearmotors 20 are mounted is shown clearly in FIGURE 3. A rod 22 is secured in a hole 24 at the end of shaft 16, which extends beyond bearing support 18. The rod 22 is held from sliding in hole 24 by nuts 26 threadably secured to the rod on either side of the shaft 16. Near the free end of the rod is slidably mounted a bracket 27 which is welded to the housing of the gearmotor 20. The bracket 27 is held in place on the rod 22 by compression springs 28, rings 29, and nuts 30. The springs 28 absorb the vibrations from motor 20. When the shaft 16 is rotated to move the table rollers 6 up or down, the gearmotor 20 rotates with it.

The front roller 8 is mounted on an axle 32 (FIGURE '1), which is rotatably held in bearing supports 33 on front roller arms 34. The arms 34 have slots 35 for passage of the axle 32, and these arms are secured to a shaft 36 which is surrounded by a sleeve 37 and is rotatably mounted in bearing supoprts 38. The supports 38 are secured to short beams 39 fixed to the tops of long beams 5. A motor 40 and gear reducer 42 (FIGURE 1) are connected by a coupling member 44 to the axle 32 of the rolelr 8. The motor 40 is thus capable of driving the roller 8 in any position of arms 34.

The solid line positions of table rollers 6 and front roller 8 shown in FIGURE 2 are the normal positions of these rollers for supporting the bar B along the conventional pass line P of the straightening machine rolls 3. To enable the rollers 6 to be moved up or down so that the method of my invention may be carried out, crank members 50 are secured to each of the shafts 16, and each of the crank members is in turn pivotally connected to a long dnag link 52 by a pin 53. Longitudinal movement of the drag link 52 rotates all of the shafts 16 and moves the rollers 6 up or down as desired.

The drag link 52 also controls the elevation of front roller 8. A link 58 is pivotally connected by a pin 59 to the forwardmost crank member 50 immediately above its connection with the drag link 52. At its other end, the link 58 is pivotally connected by pin 60 to the rear arm of a bell cna-nk 61. This bell crank in turn pivots about a pin 62 held by a bracket 64 that is bolted to the floor.

A pin '65 pivotally connects the forward arm of the bell crank 61 to an air cylinder 66 having a slidable piston rod 68. A cross beam 70 (FIGURE 4) is secured to the piston rod 68 by threaded nuts 71 above and below the beam. The beam 70 has two pairs of ears 72 projecting from its upper surface. Roller arms 34 which support the front roller 8 have tabs 73 which fits between these ears and are pivotally connected to the ears by pins 74. When the piston in the cylinder 66 is actuated, arms 34 and front roller 8 are moved up or down without mo ving the drag link 52 or the table rollers 6.

As shown in FIGURE 1, two beams 75 are mounted parallel to the beams 5. To these beams 75 are bolted cradle members 76, which extend across the table 2 and between the table rollers 6 and 8. The contour of the top edge 77 of one of these cradle members is shown in FIGURE 5. Cradle members 76 serve to protect the table rollers 6 and 8 when they are retracted below the lowermost portions 78 of the top cradle edges 77. When the bar B is being fed through the straightening rolls 4,

from side to side and up and down and thecradle members 76 insure that this whipping action will be restrained to an elevation above the rollers 6 and 8, when they are retracted below the points 78 on the top edges of the cradle members, as shown in dotted lines in FIGURE 7.

The position of the drag link 52 is controlled by a cylinder 79, (FIGURE 6) located at the rear end of the table 2. The cylinder 79 is pivotally connected to brackets '80 which are bolted to the floor, through the cylinder 79 slides a piston rod 82, and a pin 83 pivotally connects the piston rod to the drag link 52. A disc 84 is mounted on the rear end of the piston rod and the rod is limited in its forward travel by the disc 84 hitting a plate 85 on the rear of the cylinder 79. The rearward travel of rod 82 is limited by the disc 84 coming into contact with a rear stop 86.

The stop 86 is adjustable and is connected to a motor 88 by a rod 89. The motor 88 is operated to set the stop 86 in its desired position, and the forward and rearward travel of the stop is limited by switches 99 and 91 which turn off the motor 88 when the stop 86 contacts one of the switches.

In operation, a deformed bar B is fed over table rollers 6 and 8 toward straightening rolls 3. The table rollers 6 are driven by gearmotors 20 and the roller 8 is driven by motor 40 to carry the bar B forward. The elevation of the table rollers 6 and 8 is such that the center of bar B is lined up with the pass line P of the straightening rolls 3, as shown in by the solid-line positions of the rollers in FIGURE 2. This is accomplished by setting the rear stop 86 in the proper position and actuating the. cylinder 79 to force the piston rod 82 rearward against the stop.

If the bar B is bent so badly that the driven rollers 6 and '8 cannot force it between the straightening machine rolls 4 along the pass line P, the front motor 40 and 'gearmotors 20 are turned off to stop the forward move-.

ment of the bar, and the bar is moved into position for being drop fed between the rolls. First, the bar is raised to its dotted-line position B in FIGURE 2 by raising the rollers 6 and 8 to their respective dotted-line positions 6a and 8a. This is accomplished by'operating motor 88 to retract the stop 86 to its rearmost position, thereby allowing the piston rod 82 to move rearward.v The rod 82 pulls the drag link 52 rearward and causes the crank members 50 to-rotate counterclockwise. The shafts 16 rotate with the crank members 50, causing the arms 14 and the rear table rollers 6 to rise to their dotted-line positions in FIGURE 2. Also, the counterclockwise rotation of the front crank member 50 pulls the connected link 58 rearward, thus causing bell crank 61 to rotate clockwise around pin 62. The cylinder 66 connected to the crank 61 is pushed upward, which in turn raises the arms 34 supporting front roller 8. The lengths of the various links and arms described are such that all of the rear rollers 6 and the front roller 8 will be raised the same distance, as shown by their dotted-line positions 6a and 8a in FIGURE 2.

After the table rollers 6 and 8 have been raised simultaneously by the cylinder 79, the cylinder 66 is actuated to raise the front roller 8 still higher, as shown in solid lines in FIGURE 7, so that the bar B will be raised to a new tilted position B". In this position the front roller 8 must be at an elevation high enough to raise the .front end of bar B over the middle portions 4 of the straightening rolls 3. The maximum elevation of the roller 8 may be changed by the adjustment of the nuts 71 to move the cross beam 70 up or down on the piston rod 68.

With the front roller 8 in its highest position, themotor 40 and gearmotors 20 are turned on again to move the bar B forward and over the middle portions 4 of the rolls 3. Then the deformed bar is drop fed into the straightening machine rolls by quickly withdrawing table rollers 6 and 8 to their dotted-line positions 6b and 8b below the cradle member portions 78 (FIGURE 7). The piston rod 82 is rapidly pushed forward by actuating the air cylinder 79, until the disc 84 contacts the plate 85 on the rear of the cylinder 79. This pushes the drag link 52 to its dotted-line position shown in FIGURE 7,

thus rotating the crank members 50 and shaft 16 clock- Wise, and the bell crank 60 counterclockwise. Simultaneously with the actuating of cylinder 79, the cylinder 66 is actuated to retract the piston rod 68, and the, operation of both cylinders together causes the arms 14 and 34 and rollers 6 and 8 to drop downward to their dottedline positions in FIGURE'7.

The .table rollers remain retracted in their dotted-line positions 6b and 8b below the cradle members 76' (FIG- URE 7), while the bar B is drawn through the straighten ing rolls 3. Because the bar is bent, its rear end above the table 2 will be whipped from side to side and up and down as its front end is'straightened by the rolls 3.. The cradle members 76 Will absorb the blows cast by the whipping bar and will prevent the bar from striking the rollers 6 and 8 While they are retracted.

After the bar B has passed through the straightening rolls 3, the rollers 6 and 8 are moved back to their orig inal solid-line positions in FIGURE 2 by actuating air cylinder 79 and adjusting the rear stop 86. The apparatus is then ready to transport the next bar to be straight-1 ened toward the straightening rolls 3 along the pass line P.

While one embodiment of my invention has been shown and described, it will be apparent that adaptations and modifications may be made without departing from the scope of the appended claims.

Iclaim:

'1. Apparatus for feeding a deformed bar into a pair of bar straightening rolls, comprising support means, a, plurality of table rollers rotatably mounted on said support means and supporting said bar in a substantially horizontal position with its front end facing toward said straightening rolls, means for moving said bar longitudinally over said rollers and toward said straightening rolls, means for holding said table rollers at a first elevation at which said bar is aligned with the pass line through said straightening rolls, means for raising said table rollers to a second elevation above said first elevation, means for raising one of said rollers, independently of the others to a third elevation above said second elevation and high enough to cause the front end of said bar to pass above they middle portions of said rolls as the bar is fed forward,

and means for retracting all of said rollers to a fourth elevation beneath said first elevation.

2. Apparatus of claim 1, including a guard member for protecting said rollers from the whipping action of said bar in the direction of said table rollers while the bar is being straightened, said guard member being mounted between two of said rollers and having the lowest point of its top edge at an elevation between said first elevation of the rollers and said retracted fourth elevation.

3. Apparatus for feeding a deformed bar into a bar straightening machine, comprising a support means, a plurality of arms rotatably mounted on'said support means, rollers for supporting said bar rotatably mounted on said arms, means for driving at least one of said rollers to feed said bar longitudinally toward said straightening rolls,'means for holding said arms to maintain said rollers at a desired elevation, means for rotating said arms simula.

taneously to change the elevation of said rollers, and means for rotating the arms holding one of said rollers independently of the otherarms to change the elevation of the said roller held thereby.

4. Apparatus of claim 3 including means for limiting the highest and lowest elevations to which said rollers can be raised and loweredsimultaneously.

5. Apparatus of claim 3, including a guard member mounted between two of said rollers and having the lowest point of its top edge at an elevation intermediate the highest and lowest elevations to which said rollers can be raised and lowered simultaneously.

6. Apparatus for feeding a deformed barinto a bar straightening machine, comprising a support means, a plurality of arms rotatably mounted on said support means, rollers for supporting said bar rotatably mounted on said arms, means for moving said bar longitudinally over said rollers and toward said straightening rolls, an air cylinder for supporting thefront roller nearest said straightening machine and for changing the elevation of said front roller, said air cylinder having one end slidable with respect to its other end and pivotally connected to one of the forwardmost arms on which said front roller is mounted, crank members connected to the arms behind said forwardmost arm and mounted on said frame so as to rotate with their associated arms, link means pivotally connected to said crank members and said other end of the air cylinder for raising and lowering all of said rollers simultaneously, and means for operating said link means.

7. Apparatus of claim 6 including means for limiting the movement of said link means so as to limit the highest and lowest elevations to which said rollers can be raised and lowered simultaneously.

8. Apparatus of claim 6 wherein said link means includes a bell crank having two arms one of which is pivotally connected to said other end of the air cylinder,

a stationary support means pivotally connected to said bell crank, a link pivotally connected at one end to the second of said arms of the bell crank and pivotally connected at its other end to one of said crank members, and a main drag link pivotally connected to all of said crank members.

9. A method of feeding a deformed bar into a pair of bar straightening rolls, comprising the steps of raising the forward end of said bar so that it will pass above the middle portions of said rolls, feeding said bar forward until its forward end is supported above said middle portions of the rolls, and then dropping the end of the bar between said straightening rolls.

10. A method of feeding a deformed bar into a pair of bar straightening rolls, comprising the steps of moving said bar longitudinally over table rollers toward said rolls, raising at least one of said table rollers to lift the forward end of said bar above the middle portions of said straightening rolls, feeding said bar forward until its forward end is supported above said rolls, and then retracting quickly the raised table rollers to allow the end of the bar to drop between the straightening rolls.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,954,130 9/1960 Krebs.

EVON C. BLUNK, Primary Examiner.

R. E. AEGERTER, Assistant Examiner. 

1. APPARATUS FOR FEEDING A DEFORMED BAR INTO A PAIR OF BAR STRAIGHTENING ROLLS, COMPRISING SUPPORT MEANS, A PLURALITY OF TABLE ROLLERS ROTATABLY MOUNTED ON SAID SUPPORT MEANS AND SUPPORTING SAID BAR IN A SUBSTANTIALLY HORIZONTAL POSITION WITH ITS FRONT END FACING TOWARD SAID STRAIGHTENING ROLLS, MEANS FOR MOVING SAID BAR LONGITUDINALLY OVER SAID ROLLERS AND TOWARD SAID STRAIGHTENING ROLLS, MEANS FOR HOLDING SAID TABLE ROLLERS AT A FIRST ELEVATION AT WHICH SAID BAR IS ALIGNED WITH THE PASS LINE THROUGH 